Doubt
by Lazuliblur
Summary: A series of brief snapshots filling in gaps of Aries Mu's affairs during season 1 of the Netflix remake.
1. Chapter 1 (S01E02)

**Disclaimer:** Saint Seiya _isn't mine. Shocking, I know._**  
****Notes: **_This ficlet is__ based on the Netflix remake. The first part also includes a tiny, tiny reference to _Episode G_ (because I can't help being a fangirl). Comments and constructive critiques are always welcome! Enjoy!_ ;)

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**1.**

"The tournament in Chamos Island is over, then?"

The inquirer was as soft-spoken as ever, but the question still caught Aiolia off guard. The master of the House of Aries was rarely home.

"Mu. And so it is. The new Pegasus Saint has joined the ranks of the Saints of Athena… whatever that means these days."

Bitterness coloured the last part of Aiolia's answer. It was an unpopular opinion that others had voiced and that others had been punished for, but one which Aiolia was too honest to keep to himself. There was too much history between him and Sanctuary for this one more thing to make a difference.

Mu regarded him quietly, neither acknowledging nor refusing the remark.

"Aquila Marin's student?" Mu asked.

"That's right. Seiya," Aiolia confirmed.

"She must be proud of him. As must you, I imagine. I know you kept an eye on his progress."

Aiolia smiled. He wanted to ask how Mu would know what he had or had not done when the Aries Saint spent most of his time on his home in Tibet. But then, Mu was a trusted friend and companion who did not deserve to be the recipient of Aiolia's current frustration.

"I am proud," Aiolia said. "He fought bravely and did justice to his master's training." And Marin's victories always made Aiolia happy. "Most of all, though, I am relieved."

Mu tilted his head, an instinctual gesture to try to better understand the other's point of view.

"Relieved? How so?"

"You wouldn't know this, but I'd met Seiya before he went to Chamos Island."

No one would know it. He had not shared that detail about his long ago mission to Japan with anyone other than Marin on account of a promise made to a frightened little girl.

"Back when Vander Guraad was hunting potential Saints," Aiolia said. "Seiya's sister was one of his targets."

Mu was quick to put two and two together.

"That girl you brought back," he said. "But then… Seiya was present during the attack?"

"He was." Aiolia nodded. "Back then, he was too young to show any signs of cosmo. Even Guraad's manipulations couldn't awaken the ability. There was just no way to know whether he had what it took to become a Saint or not. Which was why I made the decision to separate him from his sister. The less he became involved in our world, the better… or so I thought at the time."

"A painful decision, either way. If Seiya possessed cosmo, he would be a target for Guraad in the future. If he didn't, bringing him to Sanctuary would make him one without any hope of being able to defend himself. Either choice brought difficulties."

Aiolia nodded. Mu's piercing gaze told him that he could see the other difficulty involved: Aiolia's own sensitivity to matters concerning the parting of siblings. He was grateful that Mu did not voice it.

"At the time," Aiolia continued, "I promised the girl that I would keep an eye on her brother, that I'd keep him safe, as long as it was necessary." And keeping the existence of this brother out of his report to the Great Pope ensured that Aiolia had the necessary freedom to come and go to Japan to uphold that promise. "Now that Seiya made it as a Saint, he is more than capable of looking after himself."

"Your promise is kept. And so you're relieved," Mu concluded.

"Of course, I suppose you might say that this is where the real hardship begins for that kid. He took his cloth and vowed to fight on behalf of Athena. There's no going back to the 'normal' world now."

Mu looked away toward the entrance of the House of Aries. The stars were glittering in the night sky. He wondered what kind of future his old master would have been able to read on them, whether it would have been bright or dark.

"'…on behalf of Athena…'," Mu repeated. "The new Saints still say that in their vows?"

The bitterness and frustration that had abated upon telling Mu about Seiya returned with double the intensity, bringing Aiolia's mood down. He scowled.

"Nothing's changed," Aiolia explained. "They're not even told about the prophecy that hangs over the Athena of this era. Very few other than us Gold Saints know, on orders from the Pope."

"I had wondered how that knowledge was being handled."

"It's being handled by not being handled. We're the Saints of Athena without an Athena, Mu!… I don't know… Nothing about this makes much sense, but maybe that's just me."

Both of them had trained and become Saints before the dark prophecy had been revealed. A profound faith in Athena and her desire to protect the world had been the focal point of their existence, until the day that it had been abolished by decree of the Pope. It had been hard to adjust. Still was.

"You're not the only one who finds it troubling," Mu admitted. It was, in fact, one of the reasons why he spent so much time away from Sanctuary in the Himalayan Mountains. It was easier to live with the reality that Athena had abandoned them where there was no giant stone statue of their goddess so gently overlooking her domain. "Still, our mission has not changed and, regardless of prophecies, the fact that Athena has reincarnated makes one thing undeniable."

"And what's that?" Aiolia asked.

Mu remained still, his answer prompt:

"War is coming and we had better be prepared."


	2. Chapter 2 (S01E02)

**2.**

Seiya disappeared from sight as the road sloped down and away from Sanctuary-protected grounds. He would have no trouble finding a ship's captain who could take him to the mainland in the small fishing village nestled on the island coast.

"Thank you for finding those coordinates," Marin said, seemingly directed at no one. It was only when a fellow Saint stepped out from behind a marble column that her intended recipient became clear.

"It was no trouble," Aries Mu replied. "Besides, I'm not sure that it's anything that you should thank me about. Your student is putting himself in great danger by going to that tournament."

"But it was the right thing to do. Seiya deserves a chance to choose for himself which side he wants to stand on in the coming war."

Marin was still focused on the horizon, in the far-away point where her pupil's shape had last been seen. Mu debated whether he should respond, whether it would be polite or appropriate. In the end, he chose to do so. Old Master Dohko had always called him rash.

"And Aiolia doesn't?"

Marin's head immediately whipped around to face him. Mu serenely gazed back, waiting for the words to come to her.

"Aiolia… he… wouldn't understand," she finally said, after a few seconds. "His past… wouldn't allow him to."

Mu smiled and turned around to leave. He delivered his parting words from over his shoulder.

"I spoke with him yesterday, after Seiya won the Pegasus cloth. You should try to speak to him too. You might be surprised."


	3. Chapter 3 (S01E06)

**3.**

There were Saints, like Marin, who did not believe in the prophecy saying that Athena would bring doom to the world. They outright rejected the notion that their goddess could intentionally seek to harm humanity. Some mistake had to have been made. Perhaps the Pope had misinterpreted the stars.

And then there were those few, like Mu, who suspected that something much graver was taking place in Sanctuary. A deeper conspiracy was afoot. He had no concrete evidence to present, could do nothing but fear how far it might extend.

"Found them, Master Mu! Here they are!"

Kiki's shout drew Mu's attention away from the body of the Black Saint in front of him. With a short burst of cosmo, he sent the small piece of armour that he had broken off from the dead man's breastplate back home, to his workshop on Jamir. It was clearly man-made, but something about it was very reminiscent of a traditional cloth and Mu intended to find out why that was.

"Step back, Kiki," Mu told his young apprentice as he approached. "They'll be disoriented from fighting the Phoenix Saint."

"I don't think they're awake. They look pretty rough. Are they gonna make it?"

Kiki's assessment was short but accurate. The Cygnus and Dragon Saints were pinned under massive rocks, their cloths the only thing keeping their bodies whole. Behind them the Andromeda Saint seemed to have been knocked out by a hit on the head. She was bleeding. And next to her lay the Pegasus Saint, who was not even wearing his armour. Cygnus and Dragon had probably tried to protect the two of them and taken the brunt of the volcano's fury as it collapsed on top of their heads.

If Mu had not arrived when he did and used his telekinetic powers to hold up the mountain, they would have all been dead now.

"They'll be fine, I'm sure, Kiki," Mu said. "But the Sagittarius Cloth must be close. Do you remember our lessons?"

The little boy's grin was bright and happy, even as he scratched his head. Mu couldn't help but to smile back. He could guess what was coming.

"Uhhh... what lesson was that again, Master Mu?"

A gold pendant materialised in Mu's hand, bearing the mark of the ram. He handed it over to his little apprentice.

"Cloths are living things," Mu explained. "They resonate in each other's presence, especially Gold Cloths. If you know what to look for, you can use those vibrations to sense their presence. Now go and find the Sagittarius Cloth, Kiki. Take it home with you, just like we practiced. We must keep it safe."

Kiki returned the pendant to his Master and scampered off with an excited leap. For the next few minutes, while Mu treated the four fallen Bronze Saints with basic first aid, he could hear the boy working, shifting large boulders nearby.

"I got it, Master Mu!" Kiki cried triumphantly. "I'm going now!"

Mu looked up from bandaging the Dragon Saint's arm — not broken, thankfully — to inspect his apprentice's technique. Kiki had enough experience teleporting for Mu not to worry about his safety, but the stakes this time were high enough that he felt better knowing that nothing had gone unexpectedly wrong.

His apprentice vanished in a flash of golden light, taking the Sagittarius Cloth with him.

Mu tied off the bandage he had been working on and stood to search the rest of the cave.

He found three other Black Saints, dead, no doubt, at the hands of the unconscious Bronzes. Their armours were similar in design to that of the first body that Mu had found, so he continued his search. There was still one other living presence that he could sense, and it was racked in pain.

The agony acted as a beacon. It led Mu straight to its owner's location. Surprisingly, he was already awake and digging himself free from the collapsed cave wall.

"Phoenix Nero?" Mu asked, while kneeling and gently using his cosmo to probe the condition of the other's body. He made no move to come any closer or offer any assistance.

Nero pushed a heavy rock from atop his chest. Breathing was a struggle. He lay defeated and vulnerable and his glare made it obvious that dealing with an unknown quantity such as Mu was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment.

"Who are you?" Nero grunted.

"Your heart seems lighter now than it was before. You can call me a friend, if you like."

Beaten and in pain as he was, Nero's cosmo was sluggish to respond, but for Mu it was hard to miss the way that it intensified. Nero's body just had no way to keep up with the rising hostility.

"Relax," Mu said. "I can help you, take you some place safe, where your wounds can heal. But there are a few things that I need to know first."

His words fell on deaf ears. Nero only became more restless. Mu closed his eyes for a moment and accepted that there was nothing he could do to make the Phoenix Saint trust him.

"You worked for Vander Guraad?" Mu asked.

Nero grit his teeth.

"Who the hell are you?" It was not an answer but it was not a denial either, which was what any other Saint who was loyal to Athena would want to establish first and foremost.

"Did Guraad ever mentioned having contacts inside Sanctuary?"

"I'm not telling you shit!" The outburst took more out of Nero's reserves than he had to spare. Immediately after, he was curling up on his side, trying to keep the spasms of pain under control.

Mu took pity on him and decided to leave the questions for later. He touched a finger to Nero's forehead, sharing a drop of his healing cosmo with the boy. The results were instant. Nero's body relaxed and his skin darkened to a healthier colour. The creases around his eyes faded as his heated glare shifted to one of simple confusion.

"Like I said, I will take you somewhere you can rest peacefully," Mu said. "It would be appreciated if in return you might share some pieces of your story but, if not, that will also be fine. You can go your own way once your strength returns. You will not be held prisoner."

"Why?..."

"You might not see yourself as a Saint of Athena right now but your heart has not fallen as far as you would have others believe. You are not evil, Phoenix Nero, and so I have no reason to oppose you."

Nero nodded. Perhaps something inside him recognised the quality of Mu's cosmo, knew that it would be pointless to resist against a Gold Saint. Whatever it was that had Nero cast aside his hostility and accept the offer, Mu did not particularly care.

"Then I will send you there now, Phoenix Nero. My apprentice is there. He will provide you with whatever you need to recover."

"Wait!" Nero pushed himself up on his elbows to look around the cave. "My sister-"

"Your sister is fine," Mu interrupted. He directed Nero's gaze towards the corner where the Bronze Saints were lying unconscious. "They seem to have been trapped on their way out of the volcano, but I got here in time. With a little rest, they will be fine."

"Will you bring them too?"

The question gave Mu pause. He had considered it. It would be a good opportunity to bring the Bronze Saints into the fold, make contact with Athena and let them know about what the situation was like at Sanctuary. Inform them of all the changes that the Pope had enforced, of how trainees went missing under suspicious circumstances, of how the training had only grown more brutal, and how the Saints were being sent out on fewer and fewer missions, while chaos spread across the world. He could let them know about the number of Saints who chose to remain outside Sanctuary because they had lost faith in their Pope's leadership.

"No," Mu said. "They are needed elsewhere, at Athena's side. They must grow stronger first or the knowledge of the battles that lie ahead will overwhelm them. Don't worry, Phoenix Nero. You'll see your sister again."

Nero nodded. In a moment, he vanished just like Kiki had, in a flare of golden cosmo.

And just in time, too. Mu could sense other cosmos approaching the volcano, one of which he recognised easily.

_"Has the Pope sent you here, Marin?"_ Mu thought. _"To hunt down your own apprentice? How cruel..."_

Four golden shooting stars crossed the sky, followed by four more as Mu released his telekinetic hold on the mountain and teleported the Bronze Saints and the Black Saints outside before it collapsed.


End file.
